Hi Q,
I'm very interested in your theory of Hilo. I tend not to agree with you but can't find anything that supports or rejects your idea. Could you post where in Colcord & Hugill's books & point me in the right direction (I have a couple of Hugill's & Roll & Go of Colcord's). I read alot but I'm afraid I retain a little less & thought that this was something that woulld've caught my eye & stood out but then I can't stand up for my memory. Thanks, I'd really apprecate this alot.

There's a varient of "Johnny Come Down With A Hilo" from the West Indies called "Johnny Come Down To The Hilo", but on the field recordings the source states he doesn't know what "the Hilo is" (see Deep the Water Shallow the Shore - Roger Abrahams).

Hi Azizi
From what I've read about yesterday's sailors I'd think that they're not that bigoted in their language to have insulted, rather I believe they used terms, that we, today would consider as derogatory, as an international usage for a term maybe not of endearment but of a more casual friendly term of association. Like "here's a guy I work with on board, meet Jose we call him Dago. Hi my name's Jose but Chink here calls me Dago". Nothing   disparaging. These guys weren't reared with the well educated (mostly) & creed, color & race didn't mean all that much when the guy behind you on a line might hold you from going over the side with the next roller that washes acrosses the deck. The next time you call him a big buck nigger he knows that you're glad that he was big & that he grabbed you & he knows that you don't care a hoot if he's a white elephant, you know you're gonna grab him the next time & save his big fat white/black/yellow/brown ass from going over & when the whole mix of you go ashore & get drunk & have a barroom brawl you know your mate, no matter what you call each other, is gonna risk his life watching your back.

There is another shantey, Hugill calls it The "Saltpeter Shantey",
Colcord has it from Captain Robinson's Bellman as "Slav Ho" (see the corrupted spainish chorus & what Colcord says about it). In Hugill's version the line in the 3rd verse starts "Them putas o' Chile, they're so hard to beat, Oh, roll". Growing up in a mixed neighborhood I wouldn't use the word putas (a coruption of spanish)
to discribe a female because it's very insulting & derogatory but here it's used without the vulgar, derogatoy overtones.


Another shantey "Yellar Gals" or "Doodle Let Me Go" or "Do Let Me Go"
the doodle & the do don't sit right to my thinking. In the Caribbean Dou Dou is a term (not derogatory) term for a island girl or woman
it seems to me that the song may have been a coruption of "Dou Dou Let Me Go" instead. Dou Dou is found to be in a few shanties. In Roller Bowler "As I roved out one morning I met a Dou Dou fair". Another West Indian shantey, St. Peter Down In Courland Bay starts off "Darling do do I'm going to St. Peter's Day". Any thoughts on this?

Anyway, I'm enjoying watching this thread.

Barry